Ever since his sixth-grade history project on the life of Woodrow Wilson (yes, he has always been a nerd) James has been interested in understanding what makes people tick and how their psychology affects their behavior. 

James has conducted more than 1,700 ZMET® interviews since joining Olson Zaltman in 2000. He has led projects for Fortune 100 clients including IBM, Bank of America, PepsiCo, and P&G along with non-profit and public sector clients such as the AFL-CIO, the Funeral Service Foundation, and the University of Arizona College of Medicine - Phoenix.

He also led two projects that helped clients win prestigious Ogilvy Awards from the Advertising Research Foundation.

James was an invited participant at a 2015 White House conference, "Advancing Equity for Women and Girls of Color: A Research Agenda for the Next Decade."

Conference speaking engagements include the Cable Television Association for Marketing Research Conference, IIeX North America, the ARF AudiencexScience Conference and the National Funeral Directors Association Convention. He also has lectured at colleges and universities including Arizona State, Boston University, the University of Florida, Washington University in St. Louis, UCLA, and the Wharton School.

His publications include articles and chapters in Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, Quirk's Marketing Research Review, Advances in Business Management and Forecasting, and the Huffington Post.

James holds an MBA with a dual emphasis in marketing and global management from the Pennsylvania State University Smeal College of Business.  James also has written, contributed to, or edited 15 books on baseball history and is particularly proud of his research on the development of commercial television in St. Louis, which was published in 2011 in the Missouri Historical Review.